Publisher's Synopsis
The reissue of these monumental volumes, which have been out of print since 1960, will be welcomed by students of the Civil War period. 'These volumes are a standard and fundamental work of reference for the period. They are at once a biography of Cromwell and a comprehensive edition of Cromwell's letters and speeches, and as a guide to the events of the time they are simply indispensable.' Blair Worden, Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford The first volume covers the period from Cromwell's birth in 1599 to the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649. It begins by tracing his origins and his upbringing as the son of a Huntingdonshire squire, the emergence of his Puritan faith, and his apprenticeship, as an opponent of the crown's policies, in parliament and local politics. National prominence followed his great victories in the civil wars and his leadership of the new Model Army, and the book goes on to examine fully his conflicts with the Levellers and the army radicals in the period surrounding the Putney debates of 1647. The final chapter deals with his attempts to secure a post-war settlement with the king, and his eventual decision to abandon conciliation and to carry out the regicide, the event which made possible his own assumption of power.
